Here’s what happened: Yesterday (Thursday, June 29th) at 1 p.m. Sen. Frist announced a unanimous consent stem cell package — which would require support from all 100 Senators. At that time Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklohoma pledged that he would reject it, thus killing H.R. 810 and virtually destroying any chance that we would see […]

Frist just announced that he will bring a unanimous consent (uc) package of stem cell bills to the Senate floor for a vote today. The package includes the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which passed the House in 2005.
UC requires that all 100 Senators agree on the package and then, in this case, the three […]

More about yesterday’s statements by Obama and Hillary regarding religion and the Democratic Party later. For now I am, yet again, astounded by the ridiculousness of Jerry Falwell, who responded to Obama’s call for D’s to embrace evangelicals by stating that, “unless Democrats change their positions on gay marriage and abortion they don’t have a […]

It’s been a crazy day. Things are definitely moving on the stem cell front. The Senate Appropriations Committee held a hearing yesterday, allowing religious right sweet heart Sen. Rick Santorum the opportunity to display his newest “compromise” — essentially a bill that would continue to quash embryonic stem cell research while opening up funding for […]

Yesterday Citizenlink — the political wing of Dobson’s Focus on the Family — published a statment condemning Arnold Schwarzenegger for pandering to the homosexual community. His crime? Agreeing to speak at a fundraising dinner for the Log Cabin Republicans.
Ironically, yesterday Focus also launched their most recent attempt to grow the ranks of the Republican […]

When Michael Gerson stepped down as President Bush’s chief speechwriter this weekend, the religious right lost a major political ally — and a key source of influence over President Bush. To be sure, Time magazine named Gerson one of the top 25 most influential evangelical Christians.
Despite his influence, Gerson has stayed largely out of […]

“I don’t find much that I recognize as Christian” in the religious right, says [Randall] Balmer, a professor of religion at Barnard College, Columbia University and contributing editor to Christianity Today.
He says blind allegiance to the Republican Party has distorted the faith of politically active evangelicals, leading them to misguided positions on issues such as […]

Tonight (Tuesday) at 8 p.m. CNBC will air the fourth edition of former Disney head Michael Eisner’s new show (who knew?)…his guest, Mr. Pat Robertson. Apparently during the interview, which was taped several days ago, Eisner took the opportunity to ask Pat a few clarifying questions about some of his comments over the years. The […]

Following the successful nominations of Judges Roberts and Alito to the Supreme Court, the religious right relished the realization of a judicial branch much more sympathetic to their agenda. No opportunity, however, was more important than the newfound potential to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Earlier this year the religious right achieved the first victory in […]

Alternet has an interesting article exposing the Witherspoon Institute and the influence it has enjoyed during the Gay Marriage debate in the Senate.
Yesterday was the one-month mark for Ralph Reed’s July 18th primary against Casey Cagel in his bid to become the next Lieutenant Governor of Georgia (as if that state doesn’t have enough problems). […]

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, the sponsor of a bill to have the Ten Commandments displayed in the House of Representatives — and who coincidentally represents Georgia, where a bill allowing the display of the Ten Commandments in government buildings was signed into law in April — was interviewed by Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report […]

Last week’s failure of the bigoted constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage was a major blow to the religious right. The amendment’s loss was not news, even to irrational leaders like James Dobson and Tony Perkins. The failure to garner 50 votes, however, came as a surprise, and has deeply frustrated the religious right and […]

Conservatives Against Intelligent-Design (CAID) has launched a petition to “give a voice to Republicans, Independent Conservatives, and Libertarians across the country who stand opposed to the teaching of ‘intelligent design’ and other forms of creationism in the classroom.”
CAID is very aggressively taking a stand against the religious right’s campaign to paint all conservative as part […]

A number of states, and even our nation’s capitol city, have seen Ten Commandment fights emerge in the last few weeks. On June 7th, the Michigan Capitol Committee voted 11-1 to allow a display of historical documents, including a Ten Commandments monument, to be installed in the state’s Capitol building. On June 3rd, Christian […]

Yesterday, the Education Oversight Committee in South Carolina approved a new standard that includes a statement encouraging teachers to “summarize ways that scientists use data from a variety of sources to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory.”
The Discovery Institute, the pro-intelligent design think tank, is spinning this decision as a victory. While “critical […]